Calling Home

By Michael Cadnum

Book Overview

Peter has a terrifying secret to keep: his best friend's death!

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140345698
• ISBN13: 9780140345698
• Release Date: July 1993
• Publisher: Puffin
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.2" x 0.3" x 4.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

"Just one more drink ..."

Michael Cadnum usually writes historical fiction but in this novel he struggles with the challenges of social realism. The book revolves around the theme of alcohol and drug addiction. At it's best points bristles with emotional authenticity, for example, the conversation betweens Peter, the main character, and his mother when he returns home from a visit to his estranged father's place. Unfortunately Cadnum sometimes fails in his aims. At the beginning of the book he struggles, in the space of one brief chapter, to make the character Mead appear as a life-loving, best friend that everyone would like to know. Instead Cadnum only produces melodrama. The book is only 138 pages long and would have greatly benefited from more text being devoted to establishing this friendship, which is central to the story. In these days of the craze for unrealistic, teen horror novels more books of this type need to be written. There is nothing wrong with escapism but fiction can encourage the young to think about and meet the challenges of real life. is certainly not a bad effort and deserves appause.